This is a record of my journey as a Muslim. I used to be Catholic and belonged to a missionary organisation. After my conversion, I sat on the board of a Muslim converts' organisation and specialised in da'wah programmes, convert management, interfaith issues and apostasy cases. I am an initiate of a Sufi order. As such, the articles and writings tend to cover these areas.
All the Arabic and graphics could not have been done without the help of my wife, Zafirah.

Saturday, 6 October 2012

The Knowing of Goodness

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ
ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The following
is adapted from a swuhbah from Shaykh
Muhammad Nazhim Adil al-Haqqani (q.s.)
on the 14th April 2010.

Shaykh Nazhim (q.s.) asked everyone to ponder the real
purpose of their creation. One of
Prophet Muhammad's (s.a.w.) names
defined his mission – Mu`allim an-Naas
al-Khayr, the teacher of goodness to mankind. His companions sat with him, to learn what
their life's mission was. These men sat
with their prophet. Once they had learnt
their life's mission, they went about to fulfill that mission. Have we learnt ours? Every prophet came to impart one journey to
their followers – al-khayr –
goodness. A single word summarises the
entire teachings brought by all 124,000 prophets that were Sent by Allah (s.w.t.) to Mankind. Every prophet's call to Mankind was about al-khayr, goodness.

While on this
earth there are those who do their best to learn and follow the Prophetic
teachings, there are also those who do not learn – they live a life of filth,
following warped whisperings, seeking to do their worst. All good deeds are found within al-khayr, brought by Rasulullah (s.a.w.). We must learn as a child is
born knowing nothing.

It is the best
adab to teach a young child to recite
his Lord's Name and make it the first word he utters. To teach our children to say ‘Allah’ is the
peak of al-khayr. Once a journey is begun this way, the child
will continue on this way and he will carry that dzikrullah to the final moments of his life, and will die with ‘Allah’
on his tongue. A blessed human being
begins and ends his life, with Allah's (s.w.t.)
Blessed Name. That is why it is said:

…"To Allah we Belong and to Him is our return."
(Surah al-Baqarah:156)

Today, there
are small thumb drives, tiny devices that can hold hundreds of hours of taped
recordings. Just imagine how much can be
stored in a human heart, the width of which can contain Allah's (s.w.t.) ‘Arsh. On the Day of
Promises, Allah (s.w.t.) Spoke to our
real beings. It was not to our physical
bodies, it was not even to our souls. It
was to something even higher than that, our initial atom of creation. Within that atom, is hidden the secrets of our
reality, and only those with a Divine connection can penetrate these secrets.

When thy Lord Drew forth from the Children of Adam ― from
their loins ― their descendants, and made them testify concerning themselves,
(saying): "Am I not your Lord (Who Cherishes and Sustains you)?" ―
They said: "Yea! we do testify!"
(This), lest ye should say on the Day of Judgment: "of this we were
never mindful." (Surah al-A’araf:172)

Allah (s.w.t.) Asked us if we accepted His as Our
Lord and Creator. And we had all
answered yes. It seems an easy enough verse
to understand, but we must remember that each of these verses are Kalamullah al-Qadim, ancient Words of
Allah (s.w.t.) and they are from
pre-eternity to eternity, containing endless oceans of knowledge. That Question Posed by Allah (s.w.t.) is in itself, an ocean so vast
that it cannot be pictured. It is from
this ocean that anbiya’ take their
knowledge of al-Khayr. This is the verse in which we Pledge to accept
Allah (s.w.t.) as our Lord and we
acknowledge ourselves as His servants.

This Question Posed
by Allah (s.w.t.) did not mean the
same to all of us. To each human being,
it contained a different meaning. What
it meant to the prophets, is not the same as what it meant to us. Each human being received a special meaning in
that question, and he will draw his own secret knowledge from his private ocean,
hidden in that question.

From that
secret, Rasulullah (s.a.w.) knew the
meaning of goodness and he taught his ummah
every type of goodness that there is to know. And what was the first thing on the list of
goodness, the beginning of khayr? The first goodness is to know our Lord Who Created
us. It is this knowledge that must be
propagated during the Friday prayers from the pulpits during the khuthbah. Nowadays, so many ramble on politics and the
concerns of dunya from the pulpits. That is haram.
They are only authorised to teach al-khayr to the Ummah. Once their advice leaves the path of al-khayr, they have left the straight
road of Swirath al-Mustaqim. Allah (s.w.t.)
Commands us to ask in each Surah al-Fatihah that He Keep us on the Swirath al-Mustaqim:

Show us the straight way. (Surah al-Fatihah:6)

In the 40 rak’ah of fardh and sunnahswalah that we pray within each day, we
ask for that 40 times from our Lord. Once
We fall off the narrow bridge of Swirath al-Mustaqim,
we have fallen into the trap of Shaythan. So we constantly remind those around us to
learn what goodness is so that we will know the peak of righteousness in order
that we can act on it and remain on the straight path. Without this foundation, no one will be able
to walk on the Swirath. And if we are raised on Judgement Day without
having understood and practised this, He will Turn us away from Him. Repeating advice helps us remain in safety in dunya and akhirah.

Those who have
lived in piety will meet Allah (s.w.t.)
with glowing faces. This lesson is
especially important. It is a foundation
upon which the rest of our religion must be built upon. Day by day, increase the goodness that we
perform and reduce the evil that we do until evil is completely erased from our
lives. He who has left evil, has left Shaythan, and he who has increased in
goodness has grown closer to Rasulullah (s.a.w.).